Families Honor Lost Loved Ones at Nova Massacre Site on Oct. 7 Anniversary

Friends and family of the victims of the Nova music festival massacre gather at the site of the massacre in southern Israel one year after the tragedy. October7, 2024. (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90) (Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Twenty-one Nova attendees remain in Gaza, with 17 presumed to be alive.

By Amelie Botbol, JNS

Families of the 364 people murdered by Hamas at the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023, gathered on Monday at the site near Kibbutz Re’im in southern Israel to honor their loved ones on the one-year anniversary of the massacre.

Families arrived at the site at 6. a.m.; at 6:29 a.m., the exact time at which Hamas terrorists launched their assault, music that had been playing was stopped and a commemorative siren sounded.

The siren was followed by a minute of silence, during which the Israeli flag was lowered to half-mast. The song “The Children of Winter 2023” was played, and then the “Yizkor” prayer was recited.

Bereaved families recited the kaddish mourning prayer.

“Shani saved many people on Oct. 7, she saw terrorists arriving and blocked them with her car,” Yaakov Gabay, whose daughter Shani was killed while trying to escape the festival, told JNS at Monday’s ceremony.

“It’s even harder a year later. I come here a lot. I was here last Oct. 7 to look for Shani and I saved many people. I didn’t manage to save her, but it’s essential for me to be here because I know what happened,” he added.

Adi Yehudai, whose brother Ron was killed on Oct. 7, told JNS: “This is the place where they were murdered, so being here was the most appropriate thing to do, especially on the first-year anniversary.

“We wanted to keep this as authentic as possible and not political. We wanted to connect to the land that is soaked with their blood.

“I was here a lot over the year, but today it’s a little more emotional. We have another ceremony at 11:47 near the yellow garbage container he hid in,” he continued.

“I will use Ron’s motto; We only live once, so we need to live. I believe if he were here he would tell me to smile and enjoy every second, because that’s how he lived,” he said.

On Oct. 7, Hamas massacred 364 of the approximately 3,500 participants and staff at the festival, with terrorists raping, burning alive and mutilating their victims.

Hamas terrorists kidnapped 43 people to Gaza, five of whom were released in November as part of a weeklong ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

On Jun. 8, Nova attendees Noa Argamani, 26, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were freed by the Israel Defense Forces during a daring daylight raid in the heart of a crowded residential neighborhood in Gaza.

On Aug. 31, Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six hostages from an underground tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza. Five of them—Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, Eden Yerushalmi, 24, Almog Sarusi, 25, Alexander Lobanov, 32, and Master Sgt. Ori Danino, 25—had been kidnapped from the festival.

The IDF has rescued the bodies of seven additional hostages from the Palestinian enclave.

Twenty-one Nova attendees remain in Gaza, with 17 presumed to be alive.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday began a memorial journey through Gaza border communities at the festival site, where he laid a wreath and lit candles in honor of the victims.

“Oct. 7, 2023, is a day that should be remembered in infamy, when thousands of cruel terrorists broke into our homes, violated our families, burned, chopped, raped and hijacked and abducted our citizens, our brothers and sisters, and with them, people from 36 different nationalities,” said Herzog.

“This is a scar on humanity. This is a scar on the face of the Earth.

“We have to do whatever we can by all ways and means possible to bring back our hostages who are there in the tunnels and dungeons of Gaza. And the world has to realize and understand that in order to change the course of history and bring peace, a better future to the region, it must support Israel in its battle against its enemies,” continued the president.

“Blessed be those who fell, who were murdered and killed here. Young people who came to celebrate and enjoy dance and music – to live a real life of young people as any young person should be entitled to. Let us remember them forever. Let us pray, with remorse, pain, bereavement, and condolences to their families,” added Herzog.

Ori Ohayon, who lost his sister Eden in the Nova massacre, told JNS that he remains deeply affected by the trauma.

“We are triplets, it’s like something happened to our body that day for me and my brother,” Ohayon said on Monday. “We had lost contact for three days, we looked for my sister and my cousin and didn’t find anything. Then my mother received the news.

“We must commemorate them and remember them always. Grief and sadness will be part of everything I do in my life. Eden will accompany me everywhere,” he added.